Meet Giuliano Hazan

While some teenagers go to great lengths to be different from their parents, Giuliano Hazan—only son of famed Italian cookbook writers Marcella and Victor Hazan—embraced the legacy he inherited. At 17, Giuliano joined the family business, working as an assistant at his mother's renowned School of Classic Italian Cooking with a commitment to mastering the simple, genuine flavors of Italian cuisine. And, now, more than three decades later, Giuliano is a well-respected author, teacher, entrepreneur, and in his own right one of the foremost authorities on Italian cooking.

Although born in the United States, Giuliano spent much of his childhood in Italy. After completing a bachelor's degree at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, he enrolled in the Trinity Rep Conservatory, a professional theater program in Providence, Rhode Island.

During this time—when not on stage or at the theater—Giuliano worked at Peter Kump's New York Cooking School (now, the Institute of Culinary Education), teaching a number of classes on Italian cooking in the late 80's. But, little to anyone's surprise, culinary art lured Giuliano from his love of theater and eventually he returned to Italy to serve as both teacher and director of his mother's cooking school.

For more than two decades, Giuliano has taught hands-on and demonstration-style courses to sold-out crowds at cooking schools in Europe and the United States. From 1995 to 1999, he led a number of multi-day courses at the legendary Hotel Cipriani in Venice (a particularly memorable class was the one he taught with his mother and acclaimed Chef Nobu Matsuhisa).

Giuliano channeled his love of teaching into writing books. Giuliano's first cookbook, published in 1993, The Classic Pasta Cookbook, is still an international bestseller with 500,000 copies in print. Nominated for a coveted James Beard Award, it has been translated into 12 languages. Giuliano then introduced Every Night Italian, a collection of 120 recipes that take no more than 45 minutes to prepare, in 2000. The book was named "Best Italian Cookbook in the English Language" at the World Cookbook Awards. In his next cookbook, How to Cook Italian, Giuliano offered more than 225 recipes and teaches home cooks how to create authentic Italian cuisine—including sections on kitchen equipment, pantry essentials, and basic Italian cooking techniques. In 2009, Giuliano brought healthy, satisfying pasta meals to the table with his latest book, Thirty Minute Pasta: 100 Quick and Easy Recipes.

In 2000, Giuliano and his wife, Lael, inaugurated a cooking school of their own, Cooking with Giuliano Hazan. Each spring and fall, the couple—along with partner, Marilisa Allegrini of the famed Allegrini Winery in Valpolicella—offer culinary and travel enthusiasts a true taste of Italy at Villa Giona, a restored Renaissance villa outside Verona. Giuliano and Marilisa have also recently launched A & H Selections to identify and import made-in-Italy food specialties, including premium extra virgin olive oil made from prized Ogliarola olives grown in Apulia and red wine vinegar made in the Valpolicella area near Verona.

Winner of the 2007 IACP award for Cooking Teacher of the Year, Giuliano is also a contributor to Cooking Light magazine, featured in numerous national magazines, and a frequent guest on NBC's Today show. Despite his busy schedule, Giuliano is a committed husband and father of two young daughters, Gabriella and Michela. The family—who lives in Sarasota, Florida—travels together, as much as possible. In fact, when Giuliano and Lael head to Villa Giona each year, the girls accompany them, making friends with the villa's resident duck and helping Dad in the kitchen as much as they can.